Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

Skyway Express (c.1948)

play
clip 'Take time by the forelock' education content clip 1

This clip chosen to be PG

Clip description

This clip shows the first two minutes of the travelogue Skyway Express. It was produced in the late 1940s for exhibition in the cinema. It shows the start of a passenger plane journey to London. The clip covers the journey from Sydney to Darwin by DC-3. The opening credits and roll up set the scene.

Curator’s notes

by Damien Parer

The opening credit sequence is typical of films of the time – rousing music from the Hollandia Orchestra that changes with various locations. The Middle East later gets appropriate musical treatment and London has Rule Britannia under the commentary. The commentator Edward Ross Webster has a crisp English delivery.

The roll up says 'It is the dream of every Briton to someday see London.’ Australians were described as 'British’ on their passports and marriage certificates at the time. Note there is no director credit. Mel F Nichols is credited as 'Photographed and produced by.’ The auteur movement – in which the director was credited as the primary author of a film – didn’t start until the 1960s in Europe.

Teacher’s notes

provided by The Le@rning FederationEducation Services Australia

This clip shows part of the promotional travelogue Skyway Express. It begins with opening credits followed by a roll-up (introductory text) promoting the speed and luxury of travelling to London by air. The clip shows the first leg of a journey from Sydney to London with a scheduled stopover in Darwin on a DC-3 passenger plane.

Educational value points

  • The clip shows an example of a style of documentary that was popular in the 1940s. In the voice-over commentary, Edward Ross Webster speaks with a clear English accent and a style of delivery typical of documentaries of the day. The music by the Hollandia Orchestra is in two parts, a military march to accompany the introductory rolling text and a more sophisticated strings arrangement as background for the narration. The rolling text describes 'taking time by the forelock’, meaning to act quickly and decisively.
  • Skyway Express was produced for Qantas, though the footage shows a KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) flight, in 1948 and was screened at cinemas as part of the series Universal Skylogues. The travelogue was intended to convince audiences that the new commercial airliner had 'annihilated distance’ and that it provided a luxurious alternative to the 'unknown risks and certain discomfort’ of sea travel.
  • A DC-3 passenger plane, the world’s first successful commercial airliner, is featured. Manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company, the DC-3 passenger plane was adapted to military use during the Second World War. First flown in 1935, the DC-3 was a low-wing twin-engine monoplane that could seat 21 to 28 passengers, or the equivalent of 2,725 kg. The plane was 19.5 m long with a wingspan of 29 m. The DC-3 was popular among pilots because it was extremely reliable, simple to maintain and easy to handle. For these reasons the DC-3 is considered by many to be the greatest plane of its time.
  • The roll-up (introductory text) at the beginning of the clip highlights the strong connection between Australia and Britain during the 1940s. It reads: 'It is the dream of every Briton to someday see London, heart of the Empire and Hub of the World’. The next line, 'Once it meant weary months at sea’, reveals that the 'Britons’ being talked about are the Australian public. Until Australian citizenship was introduced on 26 January 1949, Australians considered themselves British subjects.
  • The clip is an example of an early Cinesound recording. Founded in 1931, Cinesound made a number of successful feature films until the Second World War began, after which it concentrated on producing newsreels. Cinesound produced Kokoda Front Line!, the first Australian production to win an Academy Award for Best Documentary (1943) and, following the introduction of television news, merged with competitor Fox Movietone to become Cinesound Movietone Productions. The collection of 4,000 Cinesound Movietone Australian newsreels, spanning 1929–75, is registered with UNESCO’s Memory of the World program in recognition of its historic and cultural value.

The title ‘Skyway Express’ appears to rousing music, then a cast list and then the following surtitle scrolls down the screen:

It is the dream of every Briton to someday see London, heart of the Empire and hub of the World.
Once it meant weary months at sea with unknown risks and certain discomfort. Now the journey takes but a few days travel, in luxurious ease.
Speed and more speed is the call of the age; and this film is designed to show how Science, exemplified in the modern airliner, has annihilated distance and taken time by the forelock.

We see a woman’s hand holding a cup that says ‘Flying is Faster’, then the woman looking out the window of the airliner.

Narrator High above the wide expanse of northern Australia the giant airliner speeds along. No concrete highways cross this un … (unclear) territory. The shadow of the plane is a reflection of the spirit of the age as it rushes onwards. We are London-bound and running fast on a clockwork schedule.

The wireless operator taps out a message telling Darwin to the minute the time that we will land. We are almost across the great breadth of Australia compressing into hours distances that once meant weeks of weary travel. Darwin, junction of the empire Skyways, great flying boats lie at anchor on the smooth harbour as we prepare to land on Ross Smith Aerodome.

And here we are, but not for long. Just long enough to say a brief hello and goodbye to friends and then back to our flying parlour.

Farewell Australia.